Maryland Live! is constructing a $200 million resort in an effort to keep up with all the changing environment caused by the soon-to-be-opened MGM National Harbor. (Image: Matthew Cole/Capital Gazette)
The Washington, DC, casino power players are flexing their muscles. In anticipation associated with opening of the $1.2 billion MGM National Harbor later on in 2010, Maryland Live! announced this week it is investing $200 million to construct a hotel tower that is 17-story.
The two facilities are significantly less than 40 miles from one another. The MGM National Harbor and Maryland Live casinos aren’t even an hour’s drive apart in the unlikely event of no traffic.
Maryland Live happens to be hawaii’s largest casino, a name it will lose when the nationwide Harbor venue opens sometime in 2016. Based in Hanover, Maryland, Maryland Live cost $550 million to build in 2012, or less than half associated with the MGM build.
The Cordish Companies, the Baltimore-based owners of Maryland Live, states it shall expand its property to keep competitive.
‘Maryland Live! Casino could be the gaming that is premier entertainment and retail destination serving the heart of Baltimore/Washington,’ Cordish Global Gaming Group President Robert Norton said. ‘ The addition of our flagship real time! Hotel is just the latest investment we have been making to ensure Maryland Live! continues to be the preferred choice for . . . world-class gaming and entertainment.’
DC Turf War
Though Maryland Live competes with the Horseshoe Casino for the Baltimore market, during the last four years it’s largely held a monopoly on DC gambling.
Maryland Live produced $629.7 million in 2015 revenue, with $400.7 million coming from slots and lottery that is video. The Baltimore Horseshoe collected $289.4 million total.
Residents in the DC metro presently have to travel 30 miles north to Maryland Live if they want to gamble. Come autumn or winter, a billion-dollar casino will be found just 10 miles from the White home.
‘MGM was not within the original plan when Maryland Live exposed,’ Maryland Delegate Pam Beidle (D-District 32) told The Washington Post. Beidle’s county greatly advantages from the casino’s revenues.
‘ They were planning for a complete lot of their traffic coming from the south,’ the lawmaker explained. But now much of that traffic is anticipated to stay put in DC.
MGM is making no key that it desires to take over the DC gambling market.
‘The reason why we’re investing towards the degree we are is because we don’t believe this is a regional casino,’ MGM CEO Jim Murren said a year ago. Murren thinks the MGM National Harbor will end up a resort location where visitors to the world’s capital stay and play.
Plenty to Play With
DC isn’t just a metro densely populated where traffic that is agonizing the norm. It’s also home to many of the most affluent communities in America.
The District of Columbia’s immediate surrounding areas in Maryland and Virginia, commonly called the DMV, has 10 million residents. And many of those are exceedingly well-off.
The 2015 Washington DC Metro Area Median Income (AMI) for family of four came in at $109,200. For DC, Arlington, and Alexandria, the median household income of $91,193 is roughly 1.5 times the national average.
With therefore much profit such a dense area, it’s no wonder MGM and Cordish are investing greatly inside their Washington, DC, casinos.